Mihir A. Desai, Mizuho Financial Group Professor of Finance at Harvard Business School and a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School

Mihir A. Desai is the Mizuho Financial Group Professor of Finance at Harvard Business School and a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He received his Ph. D. in political economy from Harvard University; his MBA as a Baker Scholar from Harvard Business School; and a bachelor's degree in history and economics from Brown University. In 1994, he was a Fulbright Scholar to India.  

Professor Desai's areas of expertise include tax policy, international finance, and corporate finance. His academic publications have appeared in leading economics, finance, and law journals. His work has emphasized the appropriate design of tax policy in a globalized setting, the links between corporate governance and taxation, and the internal capital markets of multinational firms. His research has been cited in The Economist, BusinessWeek, The New York Times, and several other publications. He is a Research Associate in the National Bureau of Economic Research's Public Economics and Corporate Finance Programs, and served as the co-director of the NBER's India program.

His general interest publications include opinion pieces on varied topics, including tax policy and the effects of globalization on domestic welfare, in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Tax Notes and The New York Times. He has also written for practitioners in the Harvard Business Review on the role of the Global CFO, on how to reform the U.S. tax system, and how changing incentive systems have contributed to the degradation of American competitiveness. He has testified several times to Congressional bodies, including most recently to the Senate Finance Committee on corporate tax reform and inversions.      

Professor Desai has taught extensively as an award-winning teacher at HBS and at Harvard University. As a second-year professor teaching finance in the required curriculum, he received the Student Association Award for teaching excellence from the HBS Class of 2001. He subsequently built a second-year elective on International Financial Management, and his many cases on international finance are collected in a casebook published by John Wiley and are taught around the world. Since 1999, he has co-taught Public Economics (EC 1410) at Harvard College. He has also taught seminars and classes on tax policy at Harvard Law School, NYU Law School, and Columbia Law School. Most recently, Professor Desai has been active in delivering various executive education programs at HBS, including the General Managers Program (GMP), on campus and around the world. In 2011, Professor Desai launched, with Professor Joe Lassiter, the first offering at HBS for Harvard undergraduates, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, that is also included as part of the General Education curriculum at Harvard College. In the fall of 2014, Professor Desai began teaching Taxation at Harvard Law School.

From 2008 to 2011, Professor Desai led HBS's doctoral programs, which include the DBA and joint programs with the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. In that role, he led the restructuring of various programs and initiated a terminal master's program. From 2010 to 2014, Professor Desai was the Senior Associate Dean for Planning and University Affairs, where he was part of the senior management team of the Business School focused on integration with the rest of the University. Specifically, he has launched a program for Harvard undergraduates to collaborate on research with HBS professors (PRIMO), led the course for undergraduates described above, helped launch the Harvard Innovation Lab, worked on campus planning efforts including the design of Tata Hall and served on the newly created Harvard Libraries Board.  

His professional experiences include working at CS First Boston (1989-1991), McKinsey & Co. (1992), and advising a number of firms and governmental organizations. He is also on the Advisory Board of the International Tax Policy Forum and the Centre for Business Taxation at Oxford University. 

Michele DeStefano, Professor of Law at Miami University, Affiliated Faculty, Harvard Law School Executive Education and IE Law School; Founder & Director, LawWithoutWalls and MOVEL∆W

Recognized by the ABA as a Legal Rebel and by the Financial Times Innovative Lawyers (North America) as one of top 20 most innovative lawyers, Michele is a professor at the University of Miami School of Law, affiliated faculty in Harvard Law School Executive Education program, and the founder of LawWithoutWalls, a multi-disciplinary,
international executive education community of more than 2,000 lawyers, business professionals, entrepreneurs, and law and business students.

Michele is an author, speaker, and consultant on innovation, culture creation, and teaming. Through her company MOVEL∆W, Michele creates bespoke, experiential-learning workshops grounded in design thinking to transform how lawyers collaborate and create culture change.

Michele writes about the growing intersections between law, business, and legal innovation. She has recently published two books. Her book, Legal Upheaval: A Guide to Creativity, Collaboration, and Innovation in Law leverages more than 100 interviews with General Counsels at international corporations and Heads of Innovation at law firms. The other book, New Suits: Appetite for Disruption in the Legal World (co-curated with Dr. Guenther Dobrauz) includes chapters by experts in law, innovation, and technology to provide a global perspective on the future of our diverse legal service delivery ecosystem. Michele earned her B.A., magna cum laude, from Dartmouth and J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School.

Richard Jolly, Associate Clinical Professor at Kellogg School of Management 

Richard is full-time Associate Clinical Professor of Management & Organizations at Kellogg. He teaches Power in Organizations (MORS 453) and Leadership in Organizations for both the MBA (MORS 430) and Kapnick Center for Business Institutions (BUS INST 303), as well as leading a GIM trip to UK and France on the theme of Leadership and Organizational Change. He contributes to many open enrolment and custom Executive Education programs at the school.

Before moving to the Midwest, Richard has taught at the London Business School (LBS) for 22 years during which time he has consistently been one of the school’s most highly rated, innovative and award-winning lecturers. He has taught at Columbia Business School for 13 years and at 20 other academic institutions around the world.

Across his time in academia, he has taught core organizational behavior and leadership courses, electives on organizational change, power and politics, and inter-personal dynamics as well as on flagship Executive Education open programs and custom programs for more than 90 Kellogg and LBS global clients in the UK and across Europe, the Americas, the Middle East, Africa and Asia, focusing on leadership, organizational change, culture, power and politics, team dynamics and building resilience.

Richard has also been identified as one of the most entrepreneurial course creators having created two, highly successful electives (‘Paths to Power’ and ‘Inter-Personal Dynamics’); student field trips to UK, France, Peru and Mexico; and the London Core Application Practicum consulting program for technology, media and telecoms, and government, healthcare and the third sector. He has also designed, launched and co-directed two Executive Education open programs, ‘Professional Services: Strategic Client Relationships’ and ‘Leading Change’.

For the past 22 years, Richard has been a Director of the consulting firm, Stokes & Jolly Ltd, with offices in the UK and, now, the US. He coaches senior managers; facilitates senior group processes; delivers keynote addresses; runs senior development programs; and works on a diverse set of consulting assignments. His clients are located in a broad range of geographies and industries, and he has consulted with leading companies in 41 countries. His main focus is working with professional and financial services firms, family-owned businesses, technology firms, and creative industries on external projects around more effective client relationships and internal projects around strategy, leadership, culture, resilience, organizational change and succession management.